You can use W > Smooth or Subdivide Smooth in Edit Mode. This will smooth an object, or you could select certain faces or edges and smooth those.

I would agree that it isn't hard to do. The animation would be uncomplicated, but you would have to find someone that knows compositing and get the transparency on the block of ice right. Blender is a versatile program, but you do have to know some advanced techniques to do what you're trying to do and at a satisfactory level of quality. If I were to do it (and I am a student), I might ask for at least $70 to do the modeling, texturing, and shading of three objects, along with animation, rendering, and compositing into live-action footage (also need HDR images provided from the film set). Main point is that finding a student that is capable in every area is not likely, and you should realize that someone might create good models, but not have skills in other areas.

Hope this helps.

I'll join your group. I just gained some interest in anaglyphs after seeing the topic on another forum.

I haven't tried to do this since 2.49, but I think I used some PolyReduce script or similar. I would hope that Decimate would give better results, but it does know exactly how to remove polygons properly, and it can give some strange results. I thought I remembered there being a retopo tool, too. The best way, I think, is that when creating subdivisions is to use the Multires modifier and only apply it when needed or finished modeling. This way use can easily change the resolution of a mesh.

I'm working with the 2.53 beta right now. I'd much rather have a stable release than a beta, so I can't say I'm too excited.

Looks good for a first try. I'd like to see what else you're good at. My only criticism is that the eyes have ridges around them instead of being 'inset' into the face. In other words, the cheekbones should be flat.

The Installer is pretty self-explanatory. It just installs the program. The .zip download is more portable and allows you to run the program without installing it. It's good for using Blender on removable drives on different computers.

Using polygon reduction always distorts the mesh a little in my experience. It's always best to keep the poly count low enough before you convert an object to a mesh.

My answer would be that Blender does 3D stuff. Check out the "resources for Blender newbies" thread if you haven't done so already.

I don't think it's that unusual. In 3dsmax, the z axis is the depth axis by default, but there are also many other coordinate systems that it supports. Lightwave might use the same coordinate system, but I'm not sure. Blender isn't that unusual, but then again it isn't like other apps either.

Ah, more pictures to look through. Really good stuff here. Thanks for sharing.

Got it bookmarked. Looks like a lot of great stuff. What really struck me was the extensive amount of tutorials. I must say, though, that it took me a minute to wade through the huge amount of resources to find the actual tutorials.

That's good news. I hope the developers finish it soon. It seems like it's been forever in coming.

Thanks for the update!

4 more weeks, huh? I guess I can wait a bit longer. I actually haven't been blending in a while.

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to enjoy playing around with this.